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Concluded WG Multicast WWW (mcwww)

Note: The data for concluded WGs is occasionally incorrect.

WG Name Multicast WWW
Acronym mcwww
Area Applications Area (app)
State Concluded
Charter charter-ietf-mcwww-01 Approved
Document dependencies
Personnel Chairs Dr. Bernard D. Aboba, Dr. Ross Finlayson

Final Charter for Working Group

Many Web sites that distribute popular, frequently updated content
experience problems with "flash crowds": thousands of access per
minute to the same Web page overload the Web server or the network
link leading to the server. Moreover, with the increasing growth
of "push" technology, it is likely that these problems will get worse,
not better.

It is possible that integrating IP multicast with the
transport protocol used by the Web (HTTP) may be used
both to solve serious existing operational problems like "flash
crowds", and to avoid creating new problems due to "server push"
applications. Several applications (i.e. cache stuffing) appear to be
naturally amenable to use of unreliable multicast. Thus, moving ahead
on unreliable webcasting will serve to advance these applications as
well as to potentially provide short-term solutions for other
applications.

The primary goal of this BOF will be to see if there is enough
agreement on the problems to be solved, and enough
interest in moving forward to form a working group on the
subject of unreliable multicasting of Web content.